


Letters

by Xenien



Category: Angel Beats!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29727294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xenien/pseuds/Xenien
Summary: After Otonashi gave his explanation on the true purpose of the world, and the shadows grew in mass quantities, the Top Brass received one final order. Despite all the members opposing Yuri's ideals after being misled for so long, they couldn't find themselves disobeying her orders. "Write your goodbyes, tell a story. But tell it to Otonashi. He's going to be here for a long time."





	Letters

An empty paradise that was the principal's office. The room naturally accumulated dust, never touched. The room only saw the light of day through the windows but was still guarded by the forces opposite of gravity.

The mechanism of the trap remained, but the materials that composed it were degraded, yet finely polished by careful hands—the hands of a man who held extreme precision and a man who took great care.

"No God, Buddha, or Angel."

A click sounded, and the opportunity arose for him to take it. The combined sound of two squeaky doorknobs being twisted pierced the empty and the dust-filled room. The doors open, and the change in pressure causes the already existing particles to move in random directions, greatly disturbed.

Throwing adverse health effects aside, Otonashi couldn't resist but take a deep breath. What remained was only the scent of burnt gunpowder and the memories of an ignorant time. The room was a source of exhilaration, comfort, ignorance, and bliss.

Even as their memories faded away from his memory, their existence was still true. They, in some form, did exist. They just weren't with him.

His footsteps echoed through the room, and he dragged his fingers behind on what he walked past. Along the right side of the room, his eyes lock onto Yuri's face shot. Her face, perfectly preserved in its tight glass enclosure with a solid frame that hasn't been touched for the time Otonashi has been the student council president.

The room is a museum. One that shouldn't be disturbed and one that should only be seen from the outside. This museum, however, was the link that held his bond with those who have passed. He had every reason to touch it and to experience it once more. He knew where Yuri came from when she explained her viewpoints but never took the opportunity to understand her.

The doubts began, and he wondered if he should usurp his former partner's seat.

With his position, it would have made the most logical sense. However, the imaginary disrespect he would feel would be a bit unbearable. There was no way he would do such a thing.

 _This belongs to you._ He confirmed his leader's position in his head.

Something did seem a bit odd, though. A black mat covered the center portion of the table, but there was a protrusion that lifted the center of the mat. Touching the corner, his fingers glided across the material that felt like a mouse pad.

As much as the will to leave the place undisturbed kept him at bay, it was overturned by the curiosity and out-of-place circumstance that this protrusion had. Apologizing in his thoughts, he lifted the mat carefully, and the protrusion was revealed. Simultaneously, the sun was at an angle where it shined directly on the objects in question as soon as they were revealed.

Not wanting to take off the entire cover, Otonashi held a part of the mat up while he stuck his arm in to receive what appeared to be folded envelopes and pulled them out.

The mat fell with a light slap, and he held the assortment of envelopes in his hand. There were a couple, perfectly stacked on top and enclosed, protected by the mat from any sort of damage.

The top of the envelope had handwriting on it. He could tell by little ink scratches that the person who wrote was nervous or had some sort of shake in their hands. What he read gave him a moment of comfort, and then he read the name.

 _To Otonashi.  
_ _For the man who saved me.  
_ _From: Yuri Nakamura_

The urge to open the letter was unbearable. She left something for him.

Then he looked at the next envelope.

 _To Otonashi.  
_ _For my best friend.  
_ _From: Hideki Hinata_

And he turned to the next envelope.

They were all from the members of the battlefront. Not just from Yuri.

And so, he decided to open the last letter first.

 _To Otonashi.  
_ _For the man who saw the truth.  
_ _From: Eri Shiina_

* * *

_Otonashi._

_This is the first letter I can remember writing. I've written plenty before my time here, and while it's not my first, it's likely to be my last and the only letter I'll ever write. I've done this per the request of Yuri. You may hold a special and particular view of her with what you spoke of, but you aren't foolish in holding that idea to heart. I did for decades._

_There was one thing that I wanted you to know, that I wasn't scared or had anything to fear in this world. Not being taken by the shadows, dying, or being obliterated. But forgetting. Losing the person who I was...my identity and who makes me...me._ _If I kept to myself in that cave and ruled over the rocks that existed only in darkness, I would not have found the people I have as I'm writing this, and find what being 'friends' with someone meant._

_So the night you spoke to us, I said their names out loud in the shed I slept in. Yuri, Hinata, Ooyama. And I repeated their names over and over like a prayer, and it all comes flooding back._

_The ridiculous debates over the plan to find out more about this world, the early mornings where the perfectly round sun hit the window beside me and ruined my sleeping schedule. The times when we all ate together as the twilight approached each night. The little things that I've never bothered to pay attention to kept bringing me back, so I can appreciate the endless time we all had._

_I never thought I would've begun to miss those moments so much._

_Then you came. I remember you. From the rooftop of the school, I watched as you woke up in a daze, questioning the world and the people that resided in it, then getting stabbed by your own curiosity. Then you woke up like a scared little boy who could barely remember his name._

_But from the moment that you survived the Guild and you discovered the things about this world that I couldn't comprehend, i_ _t was at that moment when I became truly scared..._

_And when I decided that I would follow you anywhere._

_I wouldn't change a thing to do that again, and I hope that you look at this letter to find those who were just as lost as I am. I want you to grab their hands and let them know what I refused to believe. The lives of those who will come after you are in your hands, and I know you will do the right thing to lead them back to the path they strayed away from._

_I wanted to talk to you. Not through this letter, but word to word. Woman to man. Maybe if we meet again, I think we could have a conversation between us, and I can tell you all about the things about me after you tell me about yourself._

_I hope for that time to come, but given that I plan to leave a lot sooner than you, there was one thing I want you to do. My last request._

_Flip this paper over, and read the story I wrote about a puppy who I didn't have the chance to say goodbye to or even had the chance to touch._

_Goodbye, Otonashi. Let's talk soon._


End file.
